7 Daily Habits of Exceptionally Successful People (Success)

Interesting article in "Success":

Success breeds success. Take these tips to improve your life:
  
Exceptionally successful people…

1. Plan each day with purpose and action. Sunday night gets a bad rep because it means having to face another week, back on the treadmill, spinning the wheel once again. Successful people plan their days (yes, even Sundays) different, better, more exciting, more purposeful, more meaningful. Tony Robbins says action without a higher degree of purpose is a waste of time. How much of your life are you designing?

2. Step outside their comfort zone. Successful people thrive when they are stretched beyond what they think they can handle5. They consistently push the boundaries of what’s possible and don’t accept settling. This means stepping outside our comfort zone and questioning the world around us, looking for opportunities to constantly improve. How long have you been in your comfort zone?

3. Surround themselves with smart people. Some of the world’s trailblazing entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg, had a solid team around them from the beginning—they knew their team was crucial to their success. Collaboration allows you to refine your thinking and challenge yourself and be challenged. We become the average of the five closest people we surround ourselves with. Who are you spending your time with?

4. Focus on the big picture. Focusing on details allows you to track results and make improvements based on facts, not guesswork. But sometimes, we get lost in the doing and forget the building and creating. If you are not designing and creating a better life for yourself, who will? Never lose sight of the big picture and always work on your why. 

5. Get the job done. It’s human behavior to procrastinate. High achievers have developed laserlike focus when it comes to getting things done. At times they can be obsessed and selfish, often making sacrifices most of us would not be prepared or willing to make. Prioritize better; set aside time to focus on your goals list, not your to-do list.

6. Refuse to take no for an answer. When you’ve hit a wall, it’s easy to consider that the end of the road and tend to give up. Only the most stubborn among us will persevere long enough to climb the rest of the mountain. Think of the Wright brothers trying to get people in the air. Can you imagine what their peers said? Today we can’t imagine a world without planes. What’s your dream?

7. Never stop learning. One of our great capacities is the ability (and urge) to learn. Unfortunately, most of us stop actively learning once our formal education stops. We allow ourselves to remain stagnant in our careers and personal lives. One of my mentors, Dale Beaumont, once said, “If you are not green and growing, you are ripe and rotting.” How much of your week do you dedicate to learning? Success breeds success. Take these tips to improve your life. Challenge yourself on a daily basis. Never give up. Surround yourself with great people who will encourage you to move forward. 

IMS (IEEE MICROWAVE SHOW) 2016 SAN FRANCISCO

The recent IEEE Microwave Show in San Francisco's Moscone Center gave an excellent opportunity for me to meet with nine of our suppliers in one place: Owon, Windfreak, Telemakus, Triarchy, Rigol, Siglent, AnaPico/Berkeley, Teledyne LeCroy, and Pico Technology, as well as some customers who had booths. 

OWON: In addition to its value-priced oscilloscopes and powers supplies, Own demoed some new handheld DMMs that link with iPads etc. They feature datalogging; data can be downloaded later via BT. 

TRIARCHY - showed some as-yet unavailable products in metal housings and discussed plenty of product ideas for their future.  Their RF modules - spectrum analyzers and vector signal generators - are ideal for incorporation in larger products.

RIGOL - exhibited their complete range of high quality oscilloscopes, as well as some nice-looking new Nearfield Probes at $499 to go with their DSA range of spectrum analyzers.  

PICOTECHNOLOGY - showed the 9000 seriesTDR scopes and the new 2000B scopes.

WINDFREAK: The new (not yet released) SynthHD PRO will be based on the SynthHD but with a few updates: improved calibration for higher amplitude accuracy; re-calibrate at the Windfreak factory when needed or self-calibrate; milled aluminum case for better electrical performance and use in more rugged environments;70uS frequency step time (option) and even higher amplitude accuracy later in 2016; CE certification; easy stackability.  Price will be ~$2,000. 

ANAPICO/BERKELEY - have a new fast-switching unit that suit the radar market. 

TELEMAKUS also has a new product coming: an RF step attenuator in new larger aluminum housing that can simulate RF fading.  They have a potential customer for 50 pc orders!  Some of their products work on Ubuntu version of Linux.  All load in Windows as HID (human interface device) so drivers are already in Windows.  Telemakus RF modules can mix-and-match to make a custom RF test set-up that is GUI-driven and easy to use.

SIGLENT was showing the XPlus scopes that are MSO-ready, and spectrum analyzers - with hints of new products in the pipeline ... 

TELEDYNE LECROY showed not only the product range of high quality oscilloscopes we carry, but also very high-end, high-cost products too.

Next year the show is in Hawaii, but last time it was there - six years ago - this location brought fewer visitors and exhibitors.

I rounded my trip off with visits to the Google and Apple HQs.

International Microwave Symposium 2016

Next week is IMS week in San Francisco.  The IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium (IMS) is the premier annual international meeting for anyone involved in aspects of microwave theory and practice. It consists of a full week of events, including technical paper presentations, workshops, and tutorials, as well as numerous social events and networking opportunities. The symposium also hosts a large commercial exhibition. Co-located with IMS2 are the IEEE RFIC and ARFTG conferences.

I'll be visiting the exhibition to meet with our suppliers:
  ANAPICO/BERKELEY        2015
  OWON                                2619   PICO                                    1957   RIGOL                                 2427   SIGLENT                             129
  TELEDYNE LECROY          1739   TELEMAKUS                     649
  TRIARCHY                          2545   WINDFREAK                     1120

Maybe I'll see you there?

Noise cancellation techniques reduce NVH.

ThePicoDiagnostics NVH Kit from Pico Technology is the cost–effective answer to the many NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) problems facing technicians today. Providing real-time diagnosis to the technician in the form of either: a bar graph, a frequency chart, a 3D frequency chart, RPM order or road speed view. The ability to start the recording before a road test, and play back the recording for analysis on your return, ensures that driver attention remains on the road. Saving the recordings couldn’t be simpler: much like our other automotive software you simply save the file to your laptop’s hard drive.

But EETimes recently posted an article on how to cancel engine noise and enhance driving experience using noise cancellation techniques improve car audio, solving noise issues and reducing NVH.  It's here - http://bit.ly/1syaGc7

   

5 EMI RF Shielded Room Design Considerations

Interesting blog post from our supplier Select Fabricators:

As budgets continue to be scrutinized, design engineers and managers are looking into semi-permanent, temporary or mobile enclosure options including hard-wall relocation, modular units, and soft-sided tent enclosures. Here are five design requirement considerations for fabric-based EMI RF shielded room enclosures:

1. Existing Space: Will an existing structure be used to house an RF EMI shielded test enclosure? If so, custom sized semi-permanent or temporary full enclosures can be configured to meet the test standard and lab size. Design options include floorless, soft-sided RF shielded enclosures where a metal floor already exists or for low level shielding where equipment cannot be moved. When space is tight, a completely collapsible tent enclosure and frame free up needed space when not in use.

2. Design Cycle: How long will the test structure be needed? A week, a month, on-going? The shorter the time frame, a collapsible or semi rigid enclosure may provide needed shielding, easy disassembly, and storage until the next product design cycle. Another option is a semi-rigid or rigid frame which leaves the frame structure in place while the soft-walled RF enclosure is removed and stored. These options allow testing and may provide cost savings including recouped floor space, use at more than one facility and shared use between departments.

3. Shielding Effectiveness: What frequencies will be tested? What shielding effectiveness is needed to complete the testing at those frequencies? This will determine the amount of shielding necessary and can produce cost savings when included in the design specifications. Examples of Shielding Effectiveness (Select Fabricators’ room enclosure design):

• a. Single Layer configuration of floor, door, four sides, roof, and filter box using standard performance AC voltage line filter: -65 to -70 dB average from 150 kHz to 18 GHz
• b. Double Layer configuration of floor, door, four sides, roof, wall mounted I/O plate with high performance AC voltage line filter: -85 to -90 dB average from 150 kHz to 18 GHz

4. Controlling Entry and Exiting: A vestibule keeps the RF integrity of the test setup by controlling access. A larger size vestibule can be used as a control room where test equipment is calibrated. SFi’s double layer, soft-sided EMI shielding enclosure has -85.7 dB minimum shielding effectiveness from 400 MHz to 18 GHz when an internal vestibule design, high performance I/O plate, and AC voltage line filter are used. Most RF shielded enclosures have options for either an internal or external vestibule.

5. Size: Does the entire room need to be shielded? What size are the objects to be tested? What are the space needs for the test setup? A tabletop RF EMI enclosure or wireless RF testing pouch may be helpful for preliminary design testing. At the other end of the range, automotive and aerospace bay area modular RF enclosures can be custom sized as well as meet additional considerations, for example, anechoic foam installation to meet testing standards.

As time and budgets continue to contract, there are a number of new shielded room designs that make in-house shielded room enclosures more affordable. Deciding what is needed and necessary will make justification and sourcing more effective.

Not covered here are design considerations for I/O plates, anechoic foam, LED lighting, and ventilation, taking into account EMI/EMC requirements.

See HERE for more details of shielded enclosures or call us at 585-385-1750 ext2 to discuss your requirements!

Frequency Response Analysis? Yes, with PicoScope!!

Aaron Hexamer's powerful FRA4PicoScope app now works with the new PicoScope 2000A and 2000B oscilloscopes as well as most other PicoScopes. It uses the oscilloscope's signal generator to drive the circuit under test and produces a Bode plot of amplitude and phase response. The app was developed for testing the stability of switch mode power supplies (SMPS) but could also be used to analyze any amplifier or control system with a feedback loop.

Join the FRA4PicoScope discussion on Pico Tedchnology's forum:
https://www.picotech.com/support/topic14311.html

Download the code from Bitbucket:

https://bitbucket.org/hexamer/fra4picoscope/overview

Probe Terminology (from Teledyne LeCroy's Blog)

As oscilloscope users, we know that the probe is a critical element in getting signals from the device under test into the instrument. The ideal probe would have perfectly flat magnitude response and perfectly linear phase response across its entire frequency range. Unfortunately, that probe, though striven for by all oscilloscope manufacturers, does not exist.

What does exist is a good deal of confusion about what can be done to coax probes to behave more like that ideal probe. We often hear terms such as "calibration," "correction," "compensation," and "de-embedding" tossed around, often interchangeably. All of them do involve how the measurement system accounts for the probe's effect on the signal under test. But let's take a look at them and see how they actually differ in practice.

One possible approach is to employ a calibrated, precision instrument -- usually a vector network analyzer (VNA) -- to measure the probe's actual magnitude and phase response. With those measurements in hand, one might build a correction filter that removes the undesired effects of the probe's frequency response characteristics from the acquired signal.

Using a precision instrument to measure a probe's performance and making some adjustment (the correction) to its output to nudge it toward ideal performance is, by definition, a calibration. Why? Because it involves measurements made to traceable standards. The correction is but a part of this overall calibration process.

Then there's compensation, which should be familiar to anyone who's used a common bench oscilloscope and a passive probe. The probes usually come with a little plastic screwdriver. When you connect the probe to the oscilloscope, you use the little screwdriver to turn a trimmer capacitor on the probe's plug end. In doing so, you adjust the probe's output impedance to match the input impedance of the preamplifier on the input channel you've plugged it into.

With high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, the compensation process is a little different in that the probe correction and scope-channel correction are convolved together. As a result, the entire measurement system behaves in a very controlled fashion across the instrument's full rated bandwidth and even beyond.

These days, one will come across the concept of probe de-embedding. which involves accounting for reflections from the probe tip along the transmission line that it's connected to. Using models of the probe tip's loading impedance, the impedance profiles of the transmission line, and components in the circuit, one may account for reflections from components that travel back to the probe tip and affect measurements. Usually, the probe loading is enough that reflections from the probe are minimal, making the need for probe de-embedding a relatively rare one.

Simple Yet Ingenious D-Connectors Are 62 Years Old!

Nick Lock of Nicab Ltd writes in Electronics Weekly:

In 1952 when Cannon first introduced the D-Series connector to the market they could not have imagined that they would still be used as the connector of choice for many interconnect applications.This simple yet ingenious design has stood the test of time simply because it is so useful for a married of connectivity solutions.

We all are familiar with D-connectors. Leaving aside the different number of ways and densities, there are many different types.  Here is a simple guide to what is available and to enable you to make good design choices.

D-connectors (Mil Standard 24308) come in many different versions and here are the top five you are most likely to use.

Stamped & Formed Pin

The pins & sockets that are manufactured from a flat piece of metal (usually tinned brass) that is formed into the cylindrical shape of the contact.  This is the most common type of contact used in commercial connectors and typically has a 50 mating cycles.

Machined Pin

Contacts are manufactured from a solid piece of metal (usually gold plated copper) that is machined into the shape of the contact. This is a high quality contact designed for demanding applications. These connectors carry in excess of 500 mating cycles.

Crimp Contact

Crimp Contact D-Connectors are very popular in the high end harsh environment specifically in the military market. Crimpling as apposed to soldering is generally seen as the termination method of choice for high end however, the arguments for and against are equally strong.

IDC Connector

The IDC D-type is just about the easiest to terminate and has the added advantage of being quick to assemble making this a extremely popular choice for simple data transfer. The main disadvantage is pin-outs are limited and cable choice is restricted to ribbon cable.

Filtered Connector

Filtered connectors offer greater protection from EMI/RFI. The connectors feature ceramic capacitor planar arrays and ferrite inductors to prevent interference and typically used in environments where clarity of signal is critical. Connectors with filtering are by far the most expensive however, if interference is an option then filtering is a must.

 

 

Design for Testability Course in Silicon Valley - May 16-18, 2016

Don't Miss Out on the Design For Testability Course in Silicon Valley - May 16-18, 2016

May 9, 2016   http://bit.ly/1UQuWjM    

 

Louis Ungar in his latest blog writes:

 

"Engineers most often learn about DFT at work, if at all.  Universities do not require test or testability curriculum for either design or test engineers.  We teach a course on DFT for ICs, Boards and Systems on May 16-18, 2016 in San Jose, California.  It is intended to be an eye opener for new and working design and test engineers.  We still have seats available and we will keep registration open for a few more days on a "first come, first serve basis."  For more information on the course and for immediate registration, see http://www.besttest.com/Courses/00001-DFTBIST.cfm.  If you can't make it, or feel you don't need it, I am sure you know someone who does.  Please forward or share the link before this opportunity to test better also fades into the sunset."

If you design manufactured electronics and are available, sign up!

Disney Extends the Magic in the Kingdom with IoT and the Magic Band project

EBN Magazine just had an interesting article (http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=2144&doc_id=280428&) about how they are using IoT/RFID for improving their customer experience.  They're all about customer experience - and money!

The Magic Band project ramped up to 1,000 people by its rollout in 2014, and spent $ 1 Billion by installing sensors throughout the park, RFID readers in the room keys of all of the hotels, all of the back-end software and infrastructure, and training its staff on how to use the system.  For $12.99, each user gets a stylish waterproof wristband that inside is equipped with an RFID sensor, a Bluetooth Low-Energy chip, and a two-year battery.  Everyone in your party will have their own band, matched to their name and parent's name if applicable, and of course, credit card with a PIN.  The Magic Band acts as:

• Entry ticket to the park
• Secure ID, since the band will be matched to you by a finger-print scan
• Entry to all rides and linked to your online account of Fast Passes and special offers
• Room key
• Payment method for anything in the Disney resort (everything takes the Magic Band)
• Location tracker, both for internal park logistics planning, but also presumably helpful if your child is lost
• Link to Photo pass accounts

There are obvious enormous opportunities to grow revenue and to also reduce costs by maximizing efficiency.

Wonderful evaluation of Siglent SDS1102X oscilloscope

Thanks to Paul Danzer N1II for his wonderful evaluation of Siglent SDS1102X oscilloscope and introducing it on the article of ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) Magazine QST April 2016 !

Rigol's New Z Plus Oscilloscopes

Recently, our supplier of high quality oscilloscopes Rigol Technology, realized that having separate oscilloscope ranges for analog signals and analog+digital signals was a problem for “analog-only” customers wanting to later add digital capabilities.  So their solution was to redesign their award-winning –Z scope range and add an MSO socket on the front of the scope so that customers could add the MSO capability later when needed.

So the newly-designated Rigol DS1000Z Plus Oscilloscopes - available in 70MHz and 100MHz versions - are now “MSO Ready” with the later purchase of an upgrade. These 4-channel digital oscilloscopes now offer the flexibility to add mixed signal capabilities (16 digital channels) simply by ordering the MSO upgrade kit (RPL1116 Logic Probe Package). All of the Z Plus scopes offer 4 channels and 1GSa/s real-time sample rate. A huge 12Mpts of memory comes standard, as does the innovative "UltraVision" technology (*see below).

What Rigol didn’t make an option in this redesign, however, was the built-in 2 channel 25MHz waveform Generator – so if you need that capability, you still need to order a separate version the –S versions.

Additional options for the Z Plus range include:

1)      More memory (adds another 12Mpts)

2)      Advanced Trigger Option

3)      Waveform record and Play 

4)      Serial decoding / Trigger Option 

5)      Many types of probes

 

These affordable oscilloscopes have set new standards for price/performance, are compact, easy-to-use, and packed with useful features. Designated the “Z-Plus” range, the DS1074-Plus (70MHz), the DS1074-S-Plus (70MHz w 25MHz signal generator), the DS1104-Plus (100MHz), the http://www.saelig.com/ds1000z-plus/ds1104z-s-plus.htm (100MHz w 25MHz signal generator) are available now. The 50MHz DS1054Z remains unchanged and does not have the front-panel MSO capability.

*But just what is “UltraVision”? This Rigol patented architecture includes specialized hardware which allows finding errors in signals faster and makes analyzing them more exact. A central role is played by the deep data memory, which allows finer data acquisition. Rigol’s UltraVision technology is based on the interaction between specialized onboard components and intelligent software. The A/D converter data is handled by a dedicated Sampling-Controller. The large memory is directly connected to this controller, so data storage is done without loading or burdening the oscilloscope’s CPU. Waveform displays are also accomplished with a dedicated Waveform-Plotter component. Also this is done without increase the work load of the CPU, making for faster operation. In addition, UltraVision provides an intelligent Record-function, which combines intelligent triggering with efficient data storage. This means that only important and relevant events are stored in the available memory.

Need more information?  Check out our website here or call our Tech Support Manager Al MacRobbie (Option 2 when you call 1-888-7SAELIG or 585-385-1750) – he loves to talk technical to our customers, advising them on what best suits their needs!

Happy designing!

 

 

12 Secret Habits Of The Most Productive People (Fast Company)

http://linkis.com/www.fastcompany.com/a3i9v

According to Fast Company, super-productive people who manage to get more done than the rest of us with these secrets.

1.      Focus On What Matters
People who are highly productive have established clear goals and a vision for what they want to achieve long term. They focus on what matters and realize that 80% of what you do doesn’t matter. Instead, they focus on the 20% that does and apply their efforts there.

2. Know The Difference Between "Important" And "Urgent"

Extremely productive people know that important and urgent are two different things—many things are urgent, and that’s usually determined by someone who expects an immediate answer. If you get sidetracked by unimportant urgent issues, you spend your time fighting needless fires instead of getting done what matters.

3. Plan Your Days

To stay on track, be meticulous about planning to-do items around appointments and then setting goals for what you want to get out of each appointment to ensure those meetings are worthwhile.

4. Know Where To Find What You Need When You Need It

You don’t have to have a pristine desktop or 27 organization apps, but you do have to have a system that lets you find the information and files you need when you need them. Keep files where you can easily access them and ongoing add relevant items to each file.  

5. Have Set Routines

When you make the more mundane aspects of life routine, you free up brain power and time.   Wake at the same time and have simple morning routines. Lay out your clothes the night before. It may sound boring, but think about how much time is wasted wondering what to wear or have for breakfast. Reclaim those valuable resources by making them a routine.

6. Salvage Wasted Time

Those 10 minutes before your next meeting or the two hours your flight is delayed can be great news for your productivity. When you keep a list of things that need to be done, you can quickly scan it and pick out the actions you can take in the time you have. Answer a few email messages or return a call in the few minutes before your next meeting, or start the research for your next project while you wait for your plane.

7. Only Attend Meetings With Purpose

Meetings are a necessary evil and can aid productivity when they’re used wisely. But poorly planned meetings waste precious time.  Effective meetings must have five components:

1. Make sure the right and necessary people are in the room.
2. Make sure roles are clearly defined.
3. State the meeting purpose upfront (e.g., brainstorming, decision making, etc.)
4. Set objectives for the meeting.
5. Define next steps and action items before the meeting ends.

8. Do The Things You Don't Want To Do

Sometimes you have to "eat the frog”.. Overcoming procrastination—at least most of the time—is essential for high performance.

9. Don’t Be A Perfectionist

At the heart of procrastination, you’ll often find one of its root causes: perfectionism. Let that go. It’s not attainable and will just lead to dread when it’s time to start big or challenging projects. Your desk doesn't need to look perfect all the time if you don't want it to, and your proposal doesn't need 10 drafts.

10. Leave Gaps In Your Schedule

Sometimes you get lost on the way to the meeting. Sometimes a meeting runs long. Sometimes you just need some time to think. Highly productive people leave room for all of these things. When you’re too tightly scheduled, you can end up undermining your productivity, because if one thing goes wrong, your schedule could be disrupted for the rest of the day. Give yourself time, which you can always find a way to spend wisely.

11. Multitask Wisely

Multitasking is essential for productive people, but you have to choose the activities to pair. You wouldn’t write a paper while driving a car, but you might check your email or write a note while you’re on a call. The tasks should be complementary in the sense that usually, one task is much more important than the other, and the other one can be done with a limited amount of energy and diversion.

12. Quit Strategically

Think high performers are the "quitters never win" types? Wrong. Winners quit all the time—they’re just more thoughtful about it. Strategic quitting means ditching the things that you shouldn’t or don’t want to be doing because they aren’t worth your time, or delegating those things that can be done more cost effectively or efficiently by someone else. And that does more than free up time - that energy is then focused on new things that really matter.

7 Apps to Help You Achieve Your Goals and Build New Habits (according to Michael Hyatt)

http://bit.ly/KaGvAC                 Here are seven of the most popular.

1. Nozbe   For tracking goals, habits, and daily tasks.  Set up each goal as a project and then create milestones, tasks, and habits related to each goal. It is a task management system. It is also a little more difficult to learn than other task management systems(e.g., Trello, Wunderlist, Remember the Milk, or Things), but it is also more robust than the others. It has multiuser support built in, full integration with Evernote and Dropbox, and a very responsive development team. Nozbe is available on nearly every platform, including mobile devices and desktops. I most often use it on my Mac desktop.

Nozbe

 

2. GoalsOnTrack  GoalsOnTrack is the most robust goal-setting program of the bunch. It allows you to record the goal, the purpose (in my terminology, key motivations), start date, end date, metrics, subgoals, habits, and action plans. It allows you to think and plan hierarchically, which is how my brain works. Even Nozbe doesn’t do that. Instead, it uses labels and tags. It also syncs due dates with Google Calendar and Outlook. You can even create goal templates.  While this app is powerful and easy to use, it falls short on aesthetics. It is badly in need of a design overhaul to compete with newer, iOS 7-inspired apps.

GoalsOnTrack

 

3. LifeTick You start by defining your Core Values. (Unfortunately, the program isn’t quite clear on the difference between “Core Values” and “Areas of Focus.” These are two different lenses.) Once you’ve defined your values, you define goals and then add the tasks or steps required to achieve the goal. LifeTick recommends SMART goals.  LifeTick even provides an activity feed, so you have a date-sequenced journal of all your goal-related activities. You can also add freeform notes and sync to your calendar. It provides multi-user functionality, so you can invite others into your goals, either globally or selectively. This is something that even GoalsOnTrack doesn’t have.

LifeTick

 

4. Strides The Strides

app is beautiful. The graphs are particularly compelling, giving you the sense that you are looking at a dashboard for your life. However, the program isn’t so much a goal planning program as a goal and habit tracking program. You first decide what you want to track and then choose the appropriate tracker: Target Tracker / Habit Tracker / Average Tracker. It’s one of the few programs that understands there are different kinds of goals and each requires it’s own tracking system.

 

 

Strides

 

5. Coach.Me Formerly the Lift app, Coach.Me is the granddaddy of habit-tracking programs. It started with the premise that you have a better chance of reaching your goals and establishing new habits if you crowdsource feedback and encouragement. But you may want to share goals but only selectively with people you trust. Coach.Me enables privacy on any goal you don’t want to share with the wider community, but that’s not the same. One of the best features of Coach.Me is the ability to create plans. These are a set of actionable steps designed to accomplish a specific goal. Once designed, you can share them with the community. As a user, you can also join plans created by others. There are hundreds. Just the list will stimulate your creativity and expand your sense of what is possible. But the key distinguishing feature is how it integrates personal coaching. For $15 a month you can hire a coach to help guide and encourage you.  Coach.Me is simple but limited. If you simply want to track a few habits, it’s fine. But as a goal-tracker, maybe not ...

6. Habit List If you simply want to track habits, and don’t care so much about goals, give Habit List a whirl. It helps you track “streaks”—how many times in a row you have completed an action. The program provides the ability to create flexible schedules with habits that are to be done on specific days, non-specific days, or intervals. For example, you could schedule a run for M-W-F, eat dinner with the family three nights a week, or write a blog post twice a week. You can also skip habits when you are on vacation or simply want a break. You can resume when you already. Unfortunately, this is an iPhone-only app. There is not a desktop or iPad version. It also doesn’t harness the power of community to achieve your goals.

Habit List

 

7. irunurun  irunurun is the easiest and the most intuitive. As an added bonus, it “gamifies” the process of building new habits, making the process fun. You begin by entering the action or habit you want to track. You then weight the action, assigning it a point value. Once all your actions are entered, the game begins. You start each week with zero points and then work to add points each day. If you did each action at the appointed time, you would earn a perfect score of 100 for the week. You can also invite family, friends, or colleagues to any action and build an accountability team. Unlike Lift, where the action is either public or private, irunurun proves the opportunity for selective sharing. The app is available via a browser interface or on the iPhone and iPad. The company also makes available personal versions, team versions, and enterprise versions.

irunurun

Will you find the perfect app? No. But any of these apps will help you improve your life and accomplish what matters most to you. Pick the ones that meet your criteria and get started. Experiment until you find one that works for you.